Letter G The A to Z of TV Gardening

Welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening.

We're on a mission to dig up the best advice and tips

from all your favourite TV garden programmes and presenters

so join me, as letter by letter, one by one,

we explore everything from flowers and trees to fruit and veg

on The A To Z Of TV Gardening.

Everything we're looking at today begins with the letter G.

Here's what's coming up.

Garlic tasting. Joe Swift is put to the test.

-You're telling me the burn starts!

-The burn starts and it's getting stronger and stronger.

Monty Don remembers a lesson on gooseberry growing.

And he said, "The secret is give them a hard time.

"Treat 'em rough, boy," he said, "treat 'em rough."

And helping homeless gnomes is no laughing matter.

I can't take this seriously!

Just some of the treats we have in store.

But let's start with a flower that will flourish almost anywhere.

Carol Klein's been growing them for decades,

so get your notebooks ready - here's all you need to know.

Our first G is for geraniums.

I've been making the garden here at Glebe Cottage for more than 30 years

and during that time there's one genus of plants that I've used constantly.

It's geraniums.

Within the garden there's all sorts of situations.

Some are hot and sun-baked and others are shady nooks.

You can find a geranium to suit every single situation.

Out here in the Brick Garden, amongst all these billowing plants,

Geranium pratense is in its element - it's in complete control.

Well, pratense means "of meadows"

and that's exactly the sort of place that this geranium loves to grow.

I suppose our beds and borders are really akin to an open meadow,

with lots of plants mingling together.

And this one can fend for itself.

It's always a big, vigorous sort of plant.

But within that vigour, there's such beautiful detail -

these lovely flowers, often with striations - little lines.

And on the back of it, this beautiful star where the calyx has expanded

and now holds the petals.

And what wonderful mixtures it makes.

I don't know how it does it

because invariably it seems to seed itself in exactly the right place.

You get these associations you could never ever have dreamed of making yourself.

I love it with this brown blupleurum

and the colour is taken up within the geranium head

and then reflected again in this bronze fennel,

so you get this marriage of texture and colour and detail.

I couldn't have done it nearly as well.

Sometimes, though, I want to decide where my Geranium pratense are going

and the best way to do that is by growing it from seed.

Seed is produced from summer right through to the autumn.

Last year, I collected and stored some.

Now I'm sorting the seed from the chaff

and then sowing it thinly on gritty compost.

Covering it with grit and pressing it down firmly.

Then, after giving it a thorough watering,

popping the pot in a shady place.

And shade is exactly where Geranium nodosum wants to be.

It's a prolific self-seeder

but this time it puts itself about anywhere where there's shade -

underneath the trees and between shrubs,

that's where it's happiest.

And unlike most geraniums, it's evergreen,

so during the winter you've still got this glorious ground cover

and you get the benefit of rich autumn colour, too.

Well, out of the shade and into the sun.

This is Geranium sanguineum

and the species is a native plant and it occurs in really sunny places

and often in thin, chalky soils

and sometimes in pure sand.

And because it thrives on poverty, it makes it an excellent candidate

for growing in a pot.

And it has several sort of strategies to ensure its survival

in these really very inhospitable kind of places.

First of all, it's got these very finely divided leaves

which means it doesn't lose much moisture.

And it has two sorts of roots.

It has fine, fibrous roots like most geraniums

but it's also got these thick, chunky roots

which enable it to store water in times of drought

and as gardeners, it also enables us to propagate it from root cuttings.

Whether your plant is in the ground or in a pot,

first, expose some chunky roots.

Break off several lengths.

You can feel the nodules where shoots will develop all along the roots.

Slice them into pieces a few centimetres long

and, crucially, lay them horizontally on the surface of gritty compost,

so they're in intimate contact with it.

Weight them down with grit.

Root cuttings will work for all forms of Geranium sanguineum.

Let me introduce you to what's possibly my favourite geranium.

It's Geranium psilostemon

and it's probably the most versatile of a multitalented troupe of plants.

It'll grow practically anywhere. It loves full sun.

It will grow in a bit of shade. It's happy wherever you put it

and it's even happy in heavy clay soil,

which is just what it's growing in here.

Now, 15 or 16 months ago, I stripped these borders

and took everything out of here

and there were just three or four clumps of Geranium psilostemon.

I divided them up using back-to-back forks and made loads of plants

and replanted a lot of them.

And just look at them now.

They look as though they've been here forever

and how beautifully they combine with all these other plants in here.

They're happy neighbours.

And when you look at the plant itself,

with these dramatic palmate leaves,

lovely red stems and these gorgeous flowers,

sizzling magenta and set off with these very dramatic black eyes,

the whole thing is irresistible.

And whether it's Geranium psilostemon

or any of the other members of this marvellous family,

it's a real privilege to grow them.

What an amazing garden.

Now let's look at something that's not quite so beautiful

but that's usually the key element of most people's gardens.

We're talking G for grass.

And we've got Joe Swift and Toby Buckland next,

with advice on getting your green, green grass of home

as pitch perfect as a sports venue.

The Sports Turf Research Institute has been getting the best

out of every blade for grass for the last 80 years.

It currently has over 400 cultivars spread across 20 acres,

so where better to discover the secret of the perfect lawn?

On me head, son.

They can boast that their know-how has graced everywhere

from the greens of St Andrews to Centre Court at Wimbledon

via the World Cup.

If it's played on grass, they think about it here.

What, to you, makes a really good lawn?

Well, I think it needs to be weed free.

It needs to have good, full cover.

We like it to be dense, hard-wearing.

The leaves need to be quite fine and it needs to look good,

so we're looking for a good visual appeal in a lawn.

There may be over 400 cultivars here

but it all boils down to four main categories of grass seed.

Perennial ryegrass is hard-wearing and provides traction,

so it's good for football or rugby

but also good for gardens where children are playing.

Smooth stalked meadow grasses are very similar

but their root systems binds turf together,

so it's great for areas with heavy traffic, like golf tees.

Bent grasses form a dense carpet

which is perfect for that bowling green look

but you wouldn't want to let the kids play on it.

Similarly, fescues are great for ornamental lawns, like a golf green,

but take a lot of maintenance.

Now, I'm a big footie fan, OK?

What would I expect to find on, say, a Premiership football pitch?

The principal grass on football pitches is perennial ryegrass.

It can take the kind of wear that's imposed on it

by football matches.

Alternatively, and many football pitches will have a blend like this,

you would use some red fescue, which is a finer species of grass.

So for a garden, that would be better, wouldn't it, getting that in there

-because it knits together and gives it more...

-For a garden, that's perfect.

Hopefully, that would eliminate the possibilities

of the invasion of weeds and weed grasses coming into your lawn.

Another trial they're working on is very much back on home turf.

This area has been seeded in squares with 30 grass mixes

bought from DIY stores, garden centres and on the internet.

We're concerned about the consistency of the quality of the seed

in the domestic market

and so these trials have been maintained

as you would a lawn at home.

And what about these, then?

Well, these are what you would term multipurpose or everyday lawn seed

and it's generally made up predominantly of perennial ryegrass.

But in general, they're not that impressive, I don't think.

I mean, I know that you need to put in a lot of work to keep a good lawn

but do think the quality of the seed that is coming through,

is there a big gap between the professional market and the DIY market?

I think you've hit the nail on the head. There is a big gap.

What we would like to see is more consistency in the domestic market

and better quality seed.

Now, tell me, have you matched the specific grass types in your lawn

to the soil in your garden?

And do you treat the sward like the hallowed turf at Wimbledon?

I thought not.

That's probably why it looks like this.

Yes, all the usual suspects are here.

Leaves left on the grass too long so worm casts come to the surface.

There's bare patches and there's moss and clover outcompeting the grass.

But if you cultivate the lawn - this is what all lawn lovers know -

you can get your grass to be good and thick and strong

and now's the time to do it.

But you don't make cakes without breaking eggs

and this isn't going to look great when I've finished

but it's going to come back to life

and be a really hard-wearing, good-looking lawn.

Move any family pets because the lawn feed we're going to apply later

could harm them.

Keep them off the grass until the feed has disappeared into the soil.

Make sure the blade on your mower is sharp.

You wouldn't shave with a blunt razor, would you?

Here's why you should get your lawn mower serviced every year.

If it's got a blunt blade it will leave the tips of your grass ragged, bruised and vulnerable to disease.

Next, scarify. With a spring-tined rake, work the lawn lengthways

and widthways.

You'll be amazed at how much dead material, known as thatch,

you gather up.

This stuff can stop water and fertilizer reaching the soil.

Clearing it also lets the grass breathe

and encourages side shoots to grow.

Now, this moss just loves what grass hates -

compacted, moist, nutrient-poor soil -

and that's why there's so much of it here.

There are loads of weedkillers on the market that target moss

but they will only treat the symptoms, not the cause.

The best way to eliminate it is by aeration

but first give the lawn yet another mow

to suck up the last of the thatch.

Now, you can aerate it. Spike the lawn every 10cm with a fork.

This will improve drainage and get air and nutrients to the roots.

Lots of people never feed their lawns

but if you want it to look good, then apply a lawn food four times a year.

The key thing at this time of year is to avoid nitrogen

because that just encourages soft leafy growth

that will be damaged by winter cold.

Instead, you major on phosphates and potassium,

two nutrients that encourage robust growth and healthy roots.

If you're serious about looking after your grass,

it's worth investing in a drop spreader.

They cost around £30 and guarantee a measured dose.

It's quicker, too.

Water in, then reseed any areas that are looking thin.

Finally, rake in the seed.

A lawn this size will take about three or four hours' work.

It's a lot of effort but if a job's worth doing...

Well, I told you it wasn't going to look better straight away

but believe me, come spring you won't regret the work.

Thanks, Toby. Next, we're joining James Wong

as we discover the benefits of growing and cooking with our next G - for ginger.

A-ha. This is what I'm looking for - ginger.

Just moving the leaves reminds me of growing up -

that really characteristic smell.

But the bit you'll recognise and the bit we're really interested in

is the roots, or the rhizomes, to be more botanically accurate.

They're actually swollen stems rather than roots.

It's been used for over 2,000 years, perhaps a lot more than that.

It's probably the most widely used medicinal plant in the whole world.

You can grow ginger in the UK even without a greenhouse.

Just plant fresh rhizomes from a supermarket in a deep pot

and put it on a sunny windowsill.

Fresh ginger contains substances called gingerols

which give it that fiery taste.

When dried they convert into spicier substances called shogaols.

These help ease stomach upsets by reducing acid

but crucially they work to stop the vomit reflex

by blocking messages sent from the gut to the brain.

My anti-nausea remedy is one of my favourite medicinal sweets -

crystallised ginger.

It tastes great and it might just help.

You could in theory just gnaw on a piece of fresh root

and it would work just as well

but the flavour's pretty intense and it's not really convenient -

you couldn't pop it in your bag and take it on a ferry journey.

But crystallised ginger works just as well and it's a sweet -

you can use it on ice cream, you can put it in cookies,

whatever you want to do.

I need 350g.

Just about it.

Now you've got your ginger peeled and weighed out, slice them up,

a bit like you're making chips.

I'm going to pour on just enough freshly boiling water

to cover it by about an inch.

Let it bubble away on a medium heat, just until it's al dente.

This will take about an hour but will depend on the freshness of your ginger.

When it's ready, strain and keep the liquid to one side.

During the cooking process, the ginger will have absorbed water,

so weigh it again and then add an equal amount of caster sugar.

Add two tablespoons of the liquid from the boiled ginger

and put it back on the heat.

The important thing is you've got to keep stirring it

just to make sure it doesn't burn.

It might take about half an hour to 45 minutes

but the results are really worth it.

You'll know it's nearly ready when the syrup has really thickened up

to a gloopy consistency.

And at this point, take this off the heat and it then starts to cool down.

You can see it's just starting to crystallise -

it's only been off the heat a couple of seconds -

and at this stage I'm going to pop the stuff all out

and sprinkle it onto a baking sheet covered in sugar,

just to make sure it doesn't stick together.

Sticky, chewy, translucent bits of amber

that look fantastic, taste great.

Your crystallised ginger will keep for up to six months

in an airtight jar.

Take one or two pieces whenever you feel the need.

Still to come, we visit a sanctuary for gnomes,

get planting tips on gooseberries

and even start our own vineyard.

But first, to the edible side of our garden

and a veg that satisfies anyone who's both gardener and gourmet.

G is for garlic.

And here's Alys Fowler with all the essentials.

We are well into the garlic planting season

and I think I like growing garlic almost as much as I like eating it.

It's an incredibly easy and very rewarding crop.

All you do is take the bulb, break it into cloves,

plant each individual clove and you get a lot more bulbs.

Well, that is if it doesn't rain all winter.

If it rains all winter, you have a slightly harder task

because garlic likes to grow in very cold, dry winters,

nice warm, wet springs and then very sunny summers.

And if you have soil that's anything like ours,

which is the least bit heavy,

you'll find that you can plant your garlic in autumn

only to find that it's rotted away by spring.

So one of the things I do to help against that is

I work a lot of sand into the soil and then I also grow on ridges.

So you make ridges about 10cm high,

roughly about 10-12cm between each clove...

and you should get good results.

Now, there are two types of garlic.

There is soft-neck garlic and hard-neck garlic.

Now, hard-neck garlic is quite easy to tell apart

because it has this very hard neck.

This is called the scape and it will eventually turn into the flower,

which is this extraordinary twisted thing.

And it is considered the gourmet of all garlics,

whereas soft-neck tends to be a bit more pungent

and soft-neck is the kind that you can then braid into plaits

and it's what's sold in the majority of supermarkets.

It tends to store much better than hard-neck.

So I'm going to plant some hard-neck

because I want that delicate, delicious garlic taste.

So just break the cloves apart.

And then each clove into individuals

and you plant it with this flat end down

about an inch or so into the soil.

I'm going to try an experiment with the soft-neck garlic,

where I'm going to plant at two-weekly intervals from now until February

to see what kind of yields I get come the summer.

I'm going to grow some outside here in lines

and then I'm going to try some started off in modules in the greenhouse.

Starting off your garlic in plugs is even easier than outside.

All you need to do is use some good compost,

fill up some decent, big plugs

and start popping your garlic in.

And then all you need to be aware of is that garlic needs roughly 30 days

between zero and ten degrees.

It's really important that it gets this cool period

because this is when the bulb initiation happens

and it starts forming into cloves.

I'm going to start them off in here, which is a cool greenhouse,

and the minute that they're up I'm going to take them outside,

keep them somewhere where they're out of the worst of the rain

and then when springs come along, say, the beginning of March,

I'll plant them out.

That's garlic planting but what about tasting?

In a few minutes, Joe Swift will be giving it a go

but before him, meet Colin Boswell,

a man eats, lives and breathes garlic for a living.

Garlic is powerful in itself.

It's one of the few vegetables which really hits you

when you cut it, when you touch it, when you feel it, when you smell it.

We started growing garlic - my mother grew some in the kitchen garden

in 1975, '76.

We produced beautiful hard, white garlic bulbs

and we looked on the supermarket shelves and they just weren't the same.

We thought, if we can grow this on the Isle of Wight,

then we can sell it.

Every year we grow about 12 different garlic types.

We grow our hard-necks.

This is elephant garlic that we're sitting amongst at the moment. This is the hard-neck.

Or a soft-neck, which have been cultivated by man so long

they've lost the ability to produce a seed head

and they tend to be bigger, fatter and more commercial

but gardeners definitely become passionate about growing hard-necks.

This garlic is Iberian Wight, grown all around the Mediterranean.

And here's a nice one here

and I'm going to...

There we are. Look at that - beautiful.

Any gardener can grow this.

Now, the real test for a garlic is this.

I'm going to cut through there and what do we see?

About eight, nine, ten really big fat cloves.

All the ways that you might cook garlic in Mediterranean cooking,

this garlic is superb for it.

All the different garlics that we see around the world

originate from the Garlic Crescent,

which stretches from eastern Turkey through to Kazakhstan.

Garlic was probably one of the first plants to be cultivated by man.

As soon as man moved away from the area where the garlic grew,

he still wanted that small, little bulb which kept him healthy

and gave great flavour to his food

and he found that if he stuck it in the ground it grew.

And I think that's where man learned to cultivate, to grow.

This is heritage garlic, here. Purple Moldovan.

Now, this garlic grew, originally, around the Black Sea.

And it has about six - five, six - really big, fat cloves.

It's much more concentrated than the Mediterranean types.

There we are, look at that.

One, two, three, four, five.

You can grow garlic in pots quite easily.

Basically, break a bulb into cloves, plant the cloves with about an inch of soil on top, root down.

Four or five to a ten-inch pot.

Keep it watered. Garlic needs to be kept damp all the time

until just at the point of harvest.

It's as easy as that.

The secret of growing garlic is not to take it off the supermarket shelf

because that's been held in a cold store.

The best way is to buy a garlic that is actually meant for growing,

been bred for growing,

and you can get some fantastic results anywhere in the UK.

Garlic is a complete family

and I've spent 30 years getting to know the family

and I know a little bit about it and I'm getting closer to it

and it's a fantastic story to tell.

I think the story goes right back

to our earliest forebears scratching in the dirt

and finding that these little bulbs actually tasted good

and did fantastic things for you.

You really are Mr Garlic, Colin.

They all look very different but do they taste that different?

-Isn't garlic just garlic?

-Not really, no.

Let's try this.

-This is our Solent Wight.

-OK.

-It's originated from the Auvergne in Central France.

-Mm-hm.

Look at it - see?

Big cloves around the outside and long, elegant ones in the centre.

And the taste - would you like to taste some?

-Yeah. I'm not eating all of that, that's for sure.

-Here we go.

OK, talk me through this one.

OK, what you're feeling is that it's got sweet and spring-like.

-Mm!

-It hasn't dried yet.

-Like a spring onion, it starts off with.

Absolutely. But the strength is coming up,

-down the nose...

-Mm.

-..through all the spaces...

-Yeah, yeah.

..and you can feel it and it's got an elegant bouquet.

Purple Moldovan. Five fat cloves around a central stem.

And this makes the best garlic bread you'll ever taste.

So let's take this one there,

-cut it in half...

-Yeah, I was going to say.

-There we go.

-I should be able to taste the difference. Here we go.

Together.

-It's quite sweet to start with.

-Mm.

Quite sweet, yeah. It's quite light and sweet.

-Sugary.

-Sugary, sugary, yeah.

-But then the burn starts.

-Yeah... Oh!

You're telling me the burn starts!

The burn starts and it's getting stronger and stronger.

Yeah, and that's clearing... I can feel it going up on the palate

and across the sinuses like that.

Oh, my God. It's made my eyes water.

Mixed with butter, a little bit of salt, with butter,

put it into garlic bread, just the aroma is just...

It's a sensation.

It certainly is a sensation, that's what it is. Ooh!

I'm not sure I fancy standing too close to those two after that.

But there's barely time to draw breath now

because up next is a fruit that comes with the advice

"treat them mean, keep them keen."

This G is for gooseberries

and Monty Don is showing some tough love.

Now is the perfect time to plant gooseberries, redcurrants,

blackcurrants, white currants.

And I've got here some cordon gooseberries.

I love gooseberries

but I know a lot of people feel you need a lot of space to grow them

but if you grow them as cordons, you can grow them in a foot-wide strip

against a fence and they're perfect.

And a cordon is simply a bush that has been trained onto just one stem

and all the side shoots are cut off.

And you keep it pruned so it can grow as high as it likes

but never gets any wider,

so it's perfect for growing in a small space.

And I'm going to put a line of gooseberries along the back here.

And gooseberries are tough plants. You just chuck them in the ground.

In fact, I remember one old boy years ago

when I said that I was having trouble with gooseberries,

that they were getting mould and sawfly,

and he said, "The secret is give them a hard time.

"Treat 'em rough, boy," he said, "treat 'em rough."

And it works, you know? So there's no extra manure in here.

Just pop them in the ground

and if you've got a fire, particularly a wood fire,

put the ashes on them in April or a potash feed, perhaps, in spring

and that's all they need.

And the spacing for cordons is about one foot apart,

so really quite close together.

And just dig it out.

You notice I've got them in a bucket of water.

Really important with all bare-root plants

never to let them dry out, not even for half a minute.

You can see that's a really good root system on this plant.

It's only a small shoot coming off it but powerful roots

and in the end, that's what you're buying.

Good roots and you'll always have a good plant.

And the whole point about gooseberries is that you can eat them like grapes,

you can make jam with them, you can make pies with them,

you can stew them - there's lots of different ways

and also they will fruit at different times,

so that they're very, very versatile.

A lovely fruit to grow and not enough people do.

And I will mulch these to keep the weeds down but not to feed them.

The bamboo cane has to stay on.

In fact, these are too short. I want a longer cane, which I will attach.

And also they will need some kind of prop as they grow,

just some wire to stop them flapping around in the wind.

But all that can be done later.

What matters at this time of year is to get them in the ground

and then once you've planted them, just give them a little prune.

And the great thing about gooseberries is they're tough -

if you can grow a bramble, you can grow a gooseberry.

And anyway, we'll be revisiting these regularly throughout the season.

Thanks, Monty. Now, a gooseberry is of course a berry -

the clue's in the name -

and we're staying with a berry for this next topic,

although you may not realise it is one.

This letter G is for grape and grapevines

and we're joining our green-fingered friend Toby Buckland again,

this time to learn how to start your very own private vineyard.

When you go and buy grapes down at the supermarket

they invariably are seedless.

Now, you can buy seedless grapes to grow in your gardens.

This one is called Lakemont, it's a variety from North America

and it's a seedless white grape with quite a floral flavour to it,

lovely and sweet.

But the sweetness comes down to where it's grown

and that's why I'm going to plant them against this south-facing shed.

The dark colour of this will help to trap the heat as well,

which the grapes will just love.

The more sun your grapes have while they're ripening,

the more sugar develops inside the fruit.

When I was in France, I was taken round a vineyard

and the owner, he told me that when he planted, he chopped off nearly all the roots of his vines

to encourage them to seek out moisture in the water table

and root very deeply.

Well, I was thinking the water table in this country certainly isn't that high or that powerful

and all that would happen if you did any of these French winegrowers' tricks

is that you'd be back at the garden centre buying another vine

because you'd kill it.

So a bit of care is necessary.

Get the roots down into the soil.

Just a centimetre or so deeper than the pot.

Now, here in the Midlands there's a good chance we will get grapes.

There's a sort of a line

up to which the grapes are almost guaranteed to do well outside

if you give them a sunny position

and that's between the Wash and Pembrokeshire.

North of that you're taking a chance but you can always grow varieties like this indoors.

In fact, Lakemont does very well under glass.

Lovely little taste of the summer when these come out.

They'll be delicious.

Ooh, and one other thing.

If you don't get very much fruit on your grapevines in the garden,

you can always eat the leaves as dolmades -

they're wraps for rice and lamb, a classic Greek dish.

All you do is pick the foliage,

particularly round leaves like this that are still succulent,

dip them into boiling water.

When they come out they're quite elastic and soft

and you can wrap them round the food to make little parcels.

Absolutely delicious.

Now, one thing about grapes is, they need plenty of sunshine.

Get enough of that and a wonderful wine is perfectly possible,

as Julia Bradbury's been finding out.

With vineyards stretching as far as the eye can see,

you could be forgiven for thinking

I'm on the slopes of the Champagne region in France.

Mais non, mon ami!

I'm actually in Surrey, just over the way from Matt on Box Hill,

exploring an English vineyard.

Now, there was a time when English wine struggled to make its mark,

with a less than sparkling reputation,

but that is no longer the case.

Right now, I'm told, our home-grown grapes can challenge

some of the best of our Continental cousins',

at least when it comes to fizz.

And this isn't the first time our vineyards have wowed the world.

I'm at Painshill Park, where a restoration project has brought back to life

one of the most successful vineyards of the 18th century.

You don't expect to come across this off a roundabout on the A3.

It was one of the best in the country in its heyday.

The vineyard and the gardens around it were the vision

of Charles Hamilton,

a chap who, like many young aristocrats, spent time in his youth

on a Grand Tour of Europe.

And like many, he sampled his fair share of grape and grain on his travels.

On his return, he created this rather grand, meandering garden

with the feature vineyard, inspired by his times abroad.

It must have been one heck of a gap year.

Mike Gove of the Painshill Trust reveals more.

Hamilton was truly inspired by his European travels, wasn't he?

Oh, indeed.

In 1738 when he bought Painshill,

he started early in 1740 planting his vineyard

In the early days he wasn't too successful in his winegrowing,

so he sought help from David Geneste, a Frenchman,

an experienced winegrower, and he was here for nine years, almost.

-So he actually came?

-He came here, yes, to give him advice

and to help replant the vineyard, in many respects.

And eventually, he produced a product that was good enough to fool the French, didn't he?

Yes, indeed. It's said that the French ambassador thought

that the wine he was tasting was indeed champagne

and said it was one of the finest champagnes he had tasted.

Despite fooling a Frenchman into thinking his English wine was bona fide champagne,

the fashion for home-grown fizz didn't catch on

and Charles Hamilton's vision didn't last long

and that's when the vineyards, the rest of the park

and indeed the English wine industry fell to rack and ruin.

After the Second World War in 1945,

a couple of chaps called Hyams and Barrington Brock

started experimenting with grape varieties in their own garden

and that really sparked a revival in the British wine industry.

A few decades later and it's all a very different story.

Now English vineyards are producing wines that are recognised worldwide.

That's my cue to leave one of England's oldest vineyards

and go to one of our largest.

Just a few weeks ago, an English rose beat wine rivals from across the globe

to become the only pink wine to win a gold medal

in the International Wine Challenge

and the grapes came from here.

The English wine revival is in full swing

but why have we got it so right now?

Vineyard manager Sue Osgood spills the secrets.

-Sue, hello.

-Hello.

So tell me, what is the secret of your great grapes?

-Award-winning grapes!

-Award-winning grapes!

I think picking them at the right time,

enough sunshine to make them sweet enough to make good wine

and a very good winemaker, as well.

If you had to define the difference between English sparkling wine and champagne,

what would you say?

I think the difference for us

I think there's more fruit flavours in our wine.

There's less in champagne.

They're more... They're very dry, usually,

slightly more acidic, I would say, than ours.

And it seems the French are developing a taste for our sparkling wine, too.

With land in the Champagne region becoming increasingly scarce,

they're looking to vineyards like this one in Surrey as an alternative.

So what is it about this part of the country

that lends itself to such a fruity drop of fizz?

I'm off to meet a man for whom wine is a way of life

and there's nothing he doesn't know about posh plonk.

We're just like Champagne, here.

You know, Champagne vineyards, northern France,

-king of sparklers, let's be honest.

-Mm.

What you've got here, everything's very, very similar.

We've got the same climate - look around us, chilly, northerly, OK?

The soil's just the same.

The famous chalk soils in Champagne dip under the channel,

emerge in the south of England and here we are,

White Cliffs of Dover.

And then the grapes are the same -

Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier.

Bingo. Same winemaking method, so, yeah.

For me, English sparkling wine is - I don't know - it's the ultimate champagne lookalike.

We've had flowers, grass, edibles and drinkables

but there's something missing.

In fact, some would argue a great British garden isn't complete

without one or two lying around.

We're ending today with G for gnomes.

And let's meet a man whose off-duty mission

is to provide a haven for the gnome who is homeless.

I'm Robert Chambers, chairman of the Essex Police Authority,

and I have the only gnome sanctuary in the world.

I can't take this seriously!

A gnome sanctuary is a place for poor and distressed gnomes.

It is here for people who, if for one reason or another,

they can't keep their gnomes or their gnomes are in poor repair

and need a good home, then they seem to send them here.

The most important gnome is the welcoming gnome,

so that when you open the gate and you walk up the drive,

you have nice gnome looking at you with a big smile on his face

saying, "Hi, Robert, nice to see you home.

"I hope you have a good evening."

# I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do

# About you... #

It's that sort of attitude that gnomes have.

Well, of course, gnomes go back centuries

and they were there originally to keep off evil spirits and witches

and I hope now there aren't too many evil spirits or witches about but...

Well done, Kate, well done, Kate. I'm getting cold sitting here now.

No, I can't have a cup of coffee because...

You can. It's cold out here.

Kate, my wife, is not really a gnome lover

but I think over the years she's grown to become very fond of them.

When a new gnome arrives

then obviously I have to look to see where I'm going to put it

because it's very important that with the gnome sanctuary

that they all get on with one another.

And occasionally you do find that they have a slight fight.

They've knocked one another over overnight

and so perhaps you have to reposition them then

so they're in with a gnome that's more friendly,

although they do tend to live together quite well.

HE LAUGHS

Compose yourself, Chambers!

Well, very often they are in a poor state of repair.

They do need to be painted,

they do need more of the tender, loving care that is necessary

to look after them.

And obviously during the winter, they go through harsh times just like we do,

so they need to be constantly maintained

to ensure that they are looked after well.

My colleagues at work probably look at me and think,

"I wonder why he's got the position that he has

"and has a gnome sanctuary as well?"

But life - and life is quite short, anyway...

I'm a great believer in that you should have a serious side to life,

where you have to make difficult decisions

but you need to have a light-hearted side, too,

so they look at it on the light-hearted side

and are too polite to tell me

even if they think I'm completely off my head.

# Sitting in a garden In a little Noddy suit

# With a sparrow on me fishing rod... #

I don't think I've got any grumpy gnomes.

I think perhaps their expression changes

from when they leave some of their owners and come here.

Some of their owners that don't like gnomes, they've thrown them out

or decide that they'll send them here

and by the time they get here, they have a nice smiley face.

They do tend to come in waves

and if there is anybody who's watching this programme

who wants to send their gnome to a gnome sanctuary

for whatever reason - moving house or whether you're getting elderly

and can't look after those gnomes -

and then, of course, I would be delighted to entertain them.

What a great way to end today's programme.

I hope you can join us next time for another A To Z Of TV Gardening.

Goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd